MSI GT72S DRAGON EDITION SERIES DRIVERS WINDOWS

Most modern, high performance gaming laptops take their design cues from super cars, with powerful hardware wrapped in sleek, angular cases. The MSI GT72S Dominator Pro has a lot of power, but that's where the comparison to a super car ends. In fact, with lackluster features and a cheap, plastic feel, the 17-inch rig has more in common with a Camaro than a Lambo.

That's not to say the GT72S isn't a powerful laptop. It has plenty of horsepower thanks to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card and a decent i7 CPU. It also has a bright, 17-inch 4K screen and an honest-to-goodness Blu-ray drive. But to take the car analogy even further, when it comes to battery life, this thing is a gas-guzzler.

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MSI brought out the GTX 980M “Dominator” version of the Dragon Edition in 2015. The special Dragon Edition here adds a few visual and subtle technical changes to the design. As far as the visual changes are concerned, some will love them; others will hate them. Unfortunately, I fall into the latter category.

The Dragon Edition is one of the gaudier-looking notebooks on the market. It has a striking red chassis with a dragon graphic emblazoned on its front that looks very Game of Thrones. Again, maybe that’s your thing. It’s not mine.

PERFORMANCE MSI GT72S DRAGON SERIES

Windows 10 Home

Unlocked 6th Gen Intel Core i7 K Processor

Extreme desktop gaming graphics with GeForce® GTX 980

See gaming differently with a 17” IPS display powered by NVIDIA G-SYNC

DESIGN MSI GT72S DRAGON

MSI GT72S DRAGON EDITION SERIES

The lid on the laptop is an attractive, brushed aluminum panel, with the red MSI badge prominently on display. The cooling vents have the same angled, sports car look other high-powered gaming laptops have adopted, but the GT72S is more of a tank than a supercar. The keys feel firm, with good travel and are spaced well. The 17-inch behemoth means there's plenty of canvas for a full-sized keyboard, but some of the keys aren't where I expect them to be.

Unlike its metal top, the bottom of the computer is plastic and very cheap-feeling at that. It seems like the same filmsy plastic used on budget, sub-$500 laptops. This is partially thanks to the heavily vented bottom, which is necessary to facilitate cooling but it compromises its structural integrity.

The Dynaudio speakers are loud. It's one of the louder laptops I've tested. At full volume, it doesn't become distorted, which is great. While it retains its fidelity even at its loudest, the sound isn't particularly great to begin with. It's passable for casual listening, but there's no richness to it.

Sound also seems off-balance. There's a sub-woofer on the bottom left of the computer, and the equalizer pushes an excessive amount of bass through it.

DISPLAY MSI GT72S DRAGON EDITION WITH NVIDIA GTX 980

MSI has also ensured the Dragon Edition can cater to gamers’ hankering for some 4K action. The Dragon Edition’s display can connect to multiple higher-resolution screens using HDMI 1.4, Mini DisplayPort or a USB 3.1 Type-C port, which support 4K resolutions at 60Hz. The Dragon Edition’s sizable 17.3-inch Full HD display is one of the best I’ve seen on a gaming notebook.

Running my standard set of screen tests using my trusted X–Rite colorimeter, the Dragon Edition performed admirably and ran in with a 6,536K colour temperature and 0.13 Delta E. That’s less than 40k away from the 6,500k ideal. Anything lower than a 1.0 Delta E score is pretty darn good.

The screen covers only 85.9% of the sRGB gamut and 62.9% of the Abobe RGB, but considering this is a gaming machine, not a design tool, the figures are more than good enough.

The inclusion of Nvidia’s G–Sync technology is another positive. G-Sync is a custom tech similar to AMD’s FreeSync. It works to reduce screen tearing and input lag by synchronising the display’s refresh rates to the GPU.